Ontology recently partnered with German digital identity and cloud wallet provider, Spherity, to collaborate on expediting development on digital identity solutions for products and enterprises.

The partnership will see Spherity’s Cloud-Edge wallet integrate with Ontology’s (ONT) blockchain, and allow Ontology to use Spheriy’s Decentralized Digital Identity solutions.

The two firms will work together on creating proof-of-concept pilots demonstrating applications for digital identity within the context of supply chain, mobility, and pharmaceuticals — leveraging Spherity’s existing customer base.

Ontology and Spherity will also collaborate on research and marketing initiatives.

Identity solutions target the supply chain

Spherity CEO, Dr. Carsten Stöcker, told Cointelegraph that most of the investment, research, and development into blockchain-based identity solutions is not directed at identifying individual citizens.

“[B]lockchains and distributed ledgers are mostly used to encode a myriad of other forms of information that goes into tracking goods and value as it moves across the planet,” said Stöcker. He continued:

“The technologies that we call identity systems don’t just identify individual citizens and correlate their legal, financial lives with their digital lives – they also identify machines, autonomous algorithms, corporate entities, product information, licenses, and many other things that need a strong identity and signing rights to enter into this system of auditable, yet private transaction information.”

“There are millions of use-cases that have nothing to do with KYC or human identity of any kind, and even in the KYC space there are many ways to build in pseudonymity, revocable anonymity, disposable identities, and other capabilities beyond merely asking crypto users to show their papers and peg their digital lives to their status as subjects in a nation-state,” he added.

Connecting Asian and European DLT platforms

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ontology co-founder, Andy Ji, stated that the firms “are looking for partners to build a proof of concept showing end-to-end traceability of manufactured goods from birth in an Asian factory to sale in the European market.”

“Most likely, this would take the form of a Chinese manufacturer already using other Ontology services to make their transactions more auditable, and a German import sector with very high regulatory compliance needs or facing reputational risks,” he added.

The partnership will also allow both firms to access new markets, with Ontology having an established foothold in Asia while Spherity boasts a strong European presence — particularly within Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

The firms hope to facilitate greater interoperability and collaboration between European and Chinese blockchain ecosystems.